Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 179

Chapter 174: Refusing To Share Custody

Logan’s POV

“I know,” I said.

“Do you?” She looked at me. “Because I want you to understand what she has done here while you were gone. Not because I’m pushing you toward anything-that’s not my place, you’ve made clear enough that you don’t want me managing that.” A pause. “But because she deserves to have it acknowledged.”

I thought about the phone calls from Seattle. The eleven days of voicemail. The conversation where I’d called her finally and asked about Dante Wells and she’d answered what she knew and not pressed me on what I wasn’t saying.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said.

“Good,” my mother said. “Talk to her soon. She’s almost thirty, Logan. She has a career that’s been on hold for a year recovering from an injury. She won’t stay in this holding pattern forever.” She picked up her wine. “There are other men interested. I’ve seen it when we’re out. She’s still-she’s remarkable, and people notice.” A pause. “She’s been here every day, but she can’t wait indefinitely. If you’re going to do something, do it.”

“I’ll talk to her,” I said again.

Sherry looked at me for a moment longer.

“Good,” she said again.

Catherine left after another hour, which she did without making it a significant departure-just gathered her coat and said goodnight and hugged my mother and looked at me with the expression that held several things she’d decided not to say tonight.

I walked her to the door.

On the front step, in the cold night air, she said: “Are you all right?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said, which was more honest than I’d planned.

She looked at me. “Seattle didn’t go the way you wanted.”

“No,” I said.

She was quiet for a moment. Not filling the space, which Catherine could do very well when she chose to. “She’s not coming back,” she said. “Is she?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Logan.” Her voice was gentle. “I know you. I’ve known you for a long time. And I think you know she’s not coming back. I think you’ve known it for a while.” She paused. “The question is what you do with that.”

Hooked at the street.

“I’ll figure it out,” I said.

She nodded. Touched my arm briefly, the way she sometimes did-the gesture of someone who was offering something without demanding it be received. “Get some sleep, she said. “You look like you haven’t slept properly in weeks.”

“A month,” I said.

“Sleep,” she said. “Everything looks different when you’re not exhausted.”

She left.

I stood on the front step in the cold for another minute and then went inside.

“Nick wrote to her?” I said.

“He sent a card,” he said, carefully. “Her filing references it as evidence of ongoing attachment.” A pause. “And Logan-there’s a stalking complaint filed with the Seattle police. Your name is on it. The Preston family filed it formally last week. There’s a timestamp and the formal documentation.”

I said nothing.

“That’s going to be an issue,” he said. “In a custody proceeding, a documented stalking complaint against the other parent is relevant to the court’s assessment of the child’s best interests.” Another pause. “I want to be straightforward with you about the landscape here. Her case is not without substance. The health documentation is significant. The ongoing contact with the child-”

“Contest everything,” I said.

“Logan-”

“Contest the jurisdiction. Contest the changed circumstances argument. Contest-” I stopped. “I want sole custody. Full. I want the original arrangement maintained and her request denied.”

A silence.

“I can do that,” he said, in the voice he used when he was going to do something he wanted to add context to. “But I want you to understand what contesting everything looks like. It means a full hearing, possibly in front of a judge in Illinois. It means Nicholas may be asked about his preferences, given he’s six -courts take the stated preferences of children that age into account. It means her documentation gets examined, and her documentation is-” He paused. “It’s thorough. Medical records, call logs, the letter.”

“Card,” I said. “He sent a card.”

“The card,” he said. “Logan, I’m your lawyer and I’ll do what you tell me to do. But I’d be failing you if I didn’t say this clearly: her case has legs. A woman who was dying who is now recovering, who has documented ongoing contact with her child, who has a stalking complaint against the other parent-that’s not a case that gets dismissed easily.”

“Sole custody,” I said. “Tell them no to everything. Tell them I’m refusing all terms.”